Category: Space and Astronomy

  • Oleg Kononenko reaches a record-setting 1,000 days in space

    Oleg Kononenko reaches a record-setting 1,000 days in space

    Oleg Kononenko floats through the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station in 2008. Credit: NASA. As Moscow’s clocks tick past midnight to welcome Wednesday, June 5, the world heralds a new hero: a man who already is a national icon in Russia and his homeland Turkmenistan. Six decades after Yuri Gagarin first conquered space,…

  • Boeing Starliner launches NASA astronauts on mission to the ISS

    Boeing Starliner launches NASA astronauts on mission to the ISS

    The ULA (United Launch Alliance) Atlas V rocket and Starliner spacecraft launches on June 5 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Credit: NASA. Update: After two previous postponements, NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams are headed to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of NASA’s Boeing Starliner Crew Flight…

  • Unusual space signals detected in Western Australia upend what we know about neutron stars

    Unusual space signals detected in Western Australia upend what we know about neutron stars

    Astronomers in Australia have observed a neutron star spinning more slowly  than any other previously detected. Details of the “highly unusual” neutron star’s discovery is published in Nature Astronomy. There have been  more than 3,000 radio-emitting neutron stars discovered.  The newly found star’s spin is well outside what astrophysicists predict of neutron star behaviour. Neutron…

  • An emission-state-switching radio transient with a 54-minute period

    An emission-state-switching radio transient with a 54-minute period

    Abstract Long-period radio transients are an emerging class of extreme astrophysical events of which only three are known. These objects emit highly polarized, coherent pulses of typically a few tens of seconds duration, and minutes to approximately hour-long periods. Although magnetic white dwarfs and magnetars, either isolated or in binary systems, have been invoked to…

  • A ‘new star’ could appear in the sky any night now. Here’s how to see the Blaze Star ignite.

    A ‘new star’ could appear in the sky any night now. Here’s how to see the Blaze Star ignite.

    A dim star in the night sky 3,000 light-years from our solar system could soon become visible to the naked eye for the first time since 1946 — and you can easily find it in the night sky. The “Blaze Star” — officially called T Coronae Borealis (T CrB) — is expected to brighten significantly…

  • Soaring through space

    Soaring through space

    Vikas Chander from Delhi, India The Seagull Nebula spans the constellations of Canis Major and Monoceros. Its head is the emission nebula IC 2177 and its broad, billowing wings are part of Sharpless 2–296. Note the bow shock around the star FN Canis Majoris, which forms as the star plows through surrounding gas, like the…

  • Scientists identify a ‘sugar world’ beyond Neptune

    Scientists identify a ‘sugar world’ beyond Neptune

    I spy something red: Some of the molecules found on the surface of Arrokoth, a reddish, lumpy world located in the Kuiper belt. By bombarding samples of frozen methane with simulated cosmic rays, the research team succeeded in recreating Arrokoth’s unusual colour slope. (Courtesy: Chaojiang Zhang) Now here’s a discovery that’s pretty sweet: the most…

  • “Go Cosmo – Your Ticket to Space” Astronomy Fair was organized in Hyderabad for 3 days

    “Go Cosmo – Your Ticket to Space” Astronomy Fair was organized in Hyderabad for 3 days

    “Go Cosmo – Your Ticket to Space” Astronomy Fair was organized in Hyderabad for 3 days Coovercolly Indresh Hans News Service | 3 Jun 2024 1:23 PM GMT Highlights The “Go Cosmo – Your Ticket to Space” Astronomy Fair, organized by Orchids The International School, has made a stellar landing in Hyderabad. Hyderabad: The “Go…

  • A New Search for Ripples in Space From the Beginning of Time

    A New Search for Ripples in Space From the Beginning of Time

    The universe burst into existence 13.8 billion years ago. What happened in that earliest moment is of intense interest to anyone trying to understand why everything is the way it is today. “I think this question of what happens at the beginning of the universe is a profound one,” said David Spergel, president of the…

  • A stellar collection of the 10 best astronomy and space exploration podcasts

    A stellar collection of the 10 best astronomy and space exploration podcasts

    Space exploration has always fascinated people and captured their imagination. From the time humans first looked up at the stars to the present day, we have been driven to understand the mysteries of the universe beyond our planet. In recent decades, space exploration has made significant strides, with multiple nations launching probes and missions to…